Today, my dad, Heather, Sven, and I took a boat out to two different reefs. My dad and I snorkeled, and Heather and Sven dived!

We saw lots of cool stuff: fish, coral, and even some of the sponges the same type as the ones they are studying in the habitat! We also saw sharks. I love snorkeling in places like this because i get to watch the fish and other animals in their natural habitat. The ocean is so important to our world, and that is down to every fish, every little living particle. I feel like a part of the ocean and its wonders when i get to swim alongside them. Evolution gave them their movements. Nature taught them each flick of their tails. I wish I were able to breath underwater... Why is it the only gift humans have been given to survive is our ability to create the unnatural? We have passed the point of using that power for good. I love being able to swim, but I do feel a little like an impostor, with my fake fins and a tube attached to my face so I can breathe. When Jacques Cousteau first did his missions, he dreamed that one day humans would live underwater. Why have we not reached that point? Why is it most people seem more interested in polluting our earth and insisting that global warming isn't real because they refuse to accept it is a problem; instead of learning more about the world we live so we can live with it, learning and surviving? Still, I had fun.

We saw some really cool nurse sharks. I saw one that had some remora swimming alongside it!

These giant brain corals are so cool. It was a giant brain coral that was one of the first prominent things we saw. Those things are HUGE! As big as me, at least! They must be really old to have grown so big. I dove down to look at it, and, after a few tries, managed to get a really close-up look. From looking at it, I had expected it to be fuzzy, maybe even a little squishy, but it looked hard and rough.

I think that the purple thing looks a little like a bonsai tree, only underwater.... Imagination is fantastic. It is the ability to question "what if?". That is why subjunctives are important to our language. The ability to ask "If it were" is why anything was ever invented. This great power exists in small things. The yellow coral reminds me of when I made a brain diagram for science class. My partner and I made a brain cake, and we started by draping the cake with fondant icing. The me, that yellow coral looks like someone did the same, but it wasn't big enough.

This is a ctenophore. These little guys are also known as comb jellies, and they are the largest animals to swim using cilia. Pretty cool, huh? When I first saw it, it floated up towards me and appeared right by my fins. I saw it in my peripheral vision, and it looked like a bubble of goo was just floating along. Naturally, I immediately spun around to look at it closer (really smart of my to automatically move my face close, huh?). It was then that I realized it was a type of jelly, and I scrambled backwards (best as I could in water) in attempt to move away before the current carried me into it. Long story short, I got "shocked" by a tiny little (actually kinda cute) jelly, but not in the usual sense (turns out ctenophores can't sting).

I think this fish looks really cool. I like how the nose is long, yet the body of the fish is very round. It gives the fish a personality to me. Yes, yes, I know I'm strange. But you see it now, don't you? Also, I like how the green is blowing away from it; its like a dramatic scene of this fish emerging from blowing grass. Striding through the meadow, overcoming shyness to stand up to overbearing bully fish... wow, I could write this little guy a biography from this picture!

Looking at this.... it makes me wish that all of reefs are still in their full glory. Thick with life. This has so many corners and hidey-places... imagine all of the wonder that this could be hiding.

I wonder if the fish travel so that they are hiding behind each outcrop as a way to avoid predators... sure looks sneaky....

These are parrotfish! I was so excited to see them because their bright colors make them so easy to identify. They are also pretty big, so that and their colors make them easy to spot and follow. Needless to say, I stalked these fish.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. The bright blue of this fish caught my eye, then I saw that he was nibbling the rocks. I wonder what yummy stuff he's cleaning off of there? He's so... blue. He's like my spirit fish...

This fish to me looks like your typical fish... that is what make it so intriguing. I wonder why the scale part terns are so prominent? I like the way the color fades.. I wonder if each scale is a slightly different shade and that helps this fish hide.

All lined up... are they this way to help them catch stuff in the current?

At first, I thought this was like the fish above ("typical fish"), but check out the yellow eyelids!

These little guys will eat anything! That gives them a great advantage- less competition for food, and it makes them more compatible for habitats.

When I first saw this, I was reminded of the buckets of dried sea stars that are sold at stores by the beaches. Isn't that so sad? The first thing this makes me think of is animals that were killed so they could become decorations!

BRAIINS (you heard nothing...)

What are those three little guys eating, I wonder?

ANGELFISH! We got to see this last fish just before we got on the boat. Only one I saw... Again, yellow eyes!

Wow Sweetpea! You are thinking some deep thoughts! Love the images you make with your words. Keep the posts coming! Love you more than all the waves in the ocean!

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Loretta Helmuth

6/27/2014 10:13:33 am

Wow...you paint beautiful pictures with your words.... You make it so easy to visualize everything. What a gift you have with words. Who is taking all these awesome pictures. You?

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My name is Morgan Helmuth. My dad is Brian Helmuth, and he is part of the team on Mission 31. I will be working as an embedded teen reporter during the mission, and will post about my experiences on this site! :D